Supermarket security: preventing theft and protecting the tills

• Separate entrance and exit: a one-way gate or turnstile at the entrance, so it cannot be used as a way out.
• Exit only through the tills: closed checkouts are barred, with no open walkway beside the line.
• Trolleys and baskets: a collection point away from the exit, so a full trolley cannot reach the door without going through a till.
• Emergency exits: closed from outside, alarmed, free of obstructions, and checked every shift.

The guard’s position is part of the flow: next to the exit, with a view of the tills and the entrance. A guard tucked away at the back of the store neither sees nor deters. For the wider logic of retail loss — its sources, store layout, measurement — see the guide to retail loss prevention.

• Find them: compare the stock-count gap by category; categories with a recurring gap are your high-risk aisles.
• Bring them close to staff: small, expensive items near the tills or in a locked case, not at the end of a blind aisle.
• Visibility: lighting, convex mirrors at the corners, shelving that does not hide the aisle from the guard.
• Patrols: the guard or an employee walks these aisles at unpredictable intervals, especially at peak times.

Don’t change every measure at once. Change one in one aisle and measure at the next stock count, or you won’t know what worked.

• Till limit: set a maximum for the drawer; anything above it goes to the safe and never sits on the counter.
• Cash counts: in a closed room, by two people, both signing.
• Voids and refunds: each one with a supervisor code and a reason; review them weekly by cashier and by hour.
• Self-checkouts: an employee watching them all the time, not one who is also doing another job.

On cameras, article 19 of Directive 1/2011 of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority allows them at entrances and exits, at tills and cash rooms, in goods stores, in plant rooms and in car parks. On the shop floor where customers move they are allowed only by exception: in large stores and where high-value goods are sold, when surveillance cannot be achieved any other way. They are never allowed in eating areas, fitting rooms, toilets, or staff areas closed to the public.

A camera at the till protects the cash; it is not there to assess the cashier. The Hellenic DPA states that cameras may not be used to monitor or evaluate employees (art. 27, Greek Law 4624/2019).

• Delivery schedule: which supplier comes when; an unannounced delivery waits for a supervisor.
• Quantity check: count units or cases before signing, never “sign now, count later”.
• A checker, not the driver: the driver does not move around the stockroom alone.
• Waste and returns: bins and returns leave through a controlled point, so they don’t become a route for goods.
• Staff entrance: separate from the loading bay, with a record of who enters and when.

The guard does not replace the receiving clerk, but can log every opening of the bay with its time and vehicle. That log, read with the delivery notes, shows where stock goes missing.

1. Before entering at opening, one person checks doors, shutters and surroundings from outside; the second waits until the all-clear.
2. Disarm the alarm with a personal code, so it shows who opened.
3. At closing, check toilets, stockrooms and changing areas so nobody is left inside.
4. Count and secure the cash before the door is locked, not after.
5. Arm the alarm and log the time; leave together.

The checklist belongs in the post orders, so every shift does it the same way. See what they should contain in the guide to post orders.

• Aggressive customer: stay calm, keep distance, one person speaks while others move customers away; nobody faces an aggressive person alone.
• Theft in progress: alert the guard and the supervisor as the instructions say; people’s safety comes before the goods.
• Internal loss: handled through procedures — voids, deliveries, cash counts — not with cameras pointed at staff.
• Recording: every incident with time, place, facts, actions and who was told, written at the time.

If there is camera footage, decide that day whether it is kept as an incident: with no incident it is deleted within 15 working days at most (Directive 1/2011, art. 8). OVIT records patrols, incidents and reports on the Guardly platform, one live picture the client sees too. Request a proposal for your store.